B-CU's two late touchdowns were not enough as the Wildcats' season ends at 9-3.

BRENT WORONOFFSTAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH -- A furious Brian Jenkins had to be held back by a Bethune-Cookman administrator after a controversial sequence of events cost the Wildcats a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. After the game a very calm B-CU head coach said it was missed opportunities early and not any of the officials' calls or overturned calls that cost the Wildcats a FCS playoff victory Saturday. Coastal Carolina scored on three consecutive possessions in the second quarter and Johnnie Houston added a 68-yard interception return in the fourth quarter to give the Chanticleers a 24-14 victory before 5,465 mostly disappointed fans at Municipal Stadium. The loss ended the Wildcats' season at 9-3. It was their fourth straight playoff loss since 2002 and their second in Jenkins' three years as head coach. Coastal (8-4) won its first playoff game in three tries and will travel to Norfolk, Va., next week to meet No. 4 overall seed Old Dominion in the second round. “We just didn't execute,'' Jenkins said. “But I'm proud of my guys. It was a tremendous ride. We played the toughest schedule in the conference and our guys never wavered. In three years I think we've established ourselves.'' The Wildcats rolled up 298 of their 420 yards in the second half, but they couldn't overcome a 24-0 deficit. Jenkins said three bad throws and a dropped pass cost B-CU a couple of opportunities in what turned out to be a scoreless first quarter, and the Wildcats never recovered. “We overthrew three receivers on what would have been touchdown passes,'' Jenkins said. B-CU finished the game with 206 yards rushing, just 41 yards below its average, but they managed just 36 yards on the ground in the first half. “I thought we took away their running game and forced them to pass,'' Coastal Carolina coach Joe Moglia said. “While they were effective with that, they're not a passing team. They got behind us, but they weren't wide open. They still needed to pinpoint passes.'' Coastal quarterback Aramis Hillary (180 yards passing) nearly hit Tyrell Blanks in the end zone on a 29-yard fourth-and-3 pass late in the first quarter, but Blanks dropped the ball. The Chanticleers atoned for that miscue on their next drive when Marcus Whitener took an option pitch from Hillary and ran 14 yards for a touchdown with 13:50 left in the half. The six-play, 75-yard drive was the first of three consecutive scoring drives for the Chants. Hillary tossed a 3-yard high fade pass to 6-foot-3 Matt Hazel for a touchdown with 7:23 left in the second quarter. Then the Chants got the ball back at B-CU's 44 after a replay review ruled Jordan Murphy had fumbled after catching a Quentin Williams pass for no gain. Jenkins charged onto the field to argue with officials. “He did fumble,'' Jenkins said. “But we had a couple of players in the area of the ball, and they stopped because the officials blew the play dead and their player recovered the ball. I don't know how you can review a play that was blown dead. My argument was you blew the play dead, so that negates everything else.'' Coastal followed with Alex Catron's 35-yard field goal to go up 17-0 with 3:05 left in the half. Williams, who passed for a career-high 215 yards, was knocked out of the game for three series following a hard blindside hit on a sack by Ladarius Hawthorne in the third quarter. “I'm all right,'' Williams said after the game. “That's football, you're going to get hit. It was kind of a bad stinger, but I'm good.'' With Williams out, backup quarterback Brodrick Waters led the Wildcats on a long drive following Nick Addison's interception with 3:19 left in the third quarter. Waters' 56-yard option run brought the ball to the Coastal 11. With fourth-and-4 at the 5, B-CU lined up for a field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, but the Wildcats were flagged for a false start before the kick. Jenkins marched onto the field again and argued that the Chanticleers were offside, eventually drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. He even called a timeout, hoping to get the call overturned. “We did not move,'' Jenkins said. “We went down on the play. They went over the line of scrimmage. I got three different explanations.'' With the ball moved back to the 26, Waters connected with Keith Stroud in the back of the end zone. Officials ruled a TD, but the call was reversed by video review. Replays showed Stroud's left hand touched first out of bounds. At that point, Jenkins tried to run onto the field again but was held in a bear hug by associate athletic director Tony O'Neal. “It might have looked like (O'Neal) was trying to control me, but when he held me he was really saying things that had me (laughing).'' After Houston's interception return made it 24-0 with 10:26 left in the game, B-CU finally got on the scoreboard on Williams' 74-yard touchdown pass to David Blackwell with 6:44 left. Williams added a 2-point conversion pass. B-CU tried an onside kick but could not recover. After Catron missed a 37-yard field goal, the Wildcats scored again with 1:22 left on Isidore Jackson's 10-yard run. Williams' 2-point conversion pass fell incomplete. Jackson, who rushed for 77 yards, finished the season with 1,069 yards rushing, the third-highest total in school history. “We just didn't seize the opportunity,'' Williams said. “I missed Jhomo (Gordon) short and (Keith) Stroud on a wheel route. In the playoffs you have to seize the opportunity. It's a learning process. We're young.''

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